Monthly Capsule Reviews: April Drugstore Picks and Misses

So, I kinda went on a shopping binge at the drugstore this month.

Mascaras

NYC Big Bold Mascara ($5.99 CDN at Rexall): Terrible for thinner lashes, the bristles are too wide apart to be effective. MISS

Maybelline The Rocket Waterproof Mascara ($9.99 CDN on sale at Loblaws): Clumps at the tips of lashes, giving a chopped off feel which makes my eyes seem smaller. MISS

L’Oreal Voluminous Butterfly Waterproof Mascara ($9.99 on sale at Rexall): Finally an awesome mascara! Gives a fluttery, long-lashed, wide eyed look. Does not smudge at all. (thanks fiber formula!) PICK! 

Face

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum ($28.00 at Shoppers): Gives a glowy,smooth look and has medium to high coverage. Lasts about 7 hours on my combination skin. An HG but very pricy in Canada. PICK! 

Essence Soft Touch Mousse($3.99 at Shopper's): I use this foundation in the color matt honey as a cream contour (It’s a good substitute for the Bourjois bronzing primer mousse). It has a lovely soft bouncy feel, and blends like a dream. Staying power is around 5 hours. PICK! 

Rimmel Stay Blushed! Liquid Cheek Tint ($5.99 on sale at Shopper's): This is actually more of a mousse and it is a HG drugstore blush. I originally bough it in A Touch of Berry but went back and bought Apricot Glow and A Pop of Pink as well. (I’m addicted!). It stays on the face for a good couple of hours and adds lots of dimension and does not pool in my huge pores (yay!). Pigmentation is also quite good, although Apricot Glow definitely is more muted on my yellow-olive toned skin. PICK! 

Lips

Rimmel Apocalips in Celestial ($5.99 on sale at Shopper's): Terribly drying with a plastic feel. I was excited because these were very hyped up at their launch but it feels terrible on the lips. MISS

Essence Stay Matt (this is how they spell matte apparently) Lip Cream in Silky Red and Smooth Berry ($2.99 at Shopper's): This is a fantastic matte lip product from the drugstore. The colors are very flattering (for some reason reds and bright pinks don’t really work with my skintone but these are the exception!) and you can't beat the price. Silky Red is what I call my Taylor Swift red lip. It sits quite comfortably on the lips (still a little drying, but far better than the NYX version). PICK! 

Skincare

La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo ($26.00 on sale at Shopper's): I use this as a spot treatment and it worked pretty effectively to help shrink my giant stress nodule (which was very painful) in half the time. Expensive but works. PICK! Main Ingredient is Salicylic Acid and you get 40 mL which actually $0.65 per mL and cost efficient for a spot treatment. 

Neostrata Sample Kit ($5.99 at Winners): Contained deluxe samples of the Oil-free Moisture Infusion Lotion, Smoothing Cream Level 2 and Cleansing Gel. I mainly got this kit for the deluxe sample of the smoothing cream which I used before and greatly enjoyed (great exfoliating cream but again expensive). I was pleasantly surprised by the Oil Free Moisture Infusion Lotion (a blue gel type moisturizer) which seemed to hydrate better than my normal CeraVe lotion and felt very cooling and soothing on my inflamed skin. I haven’t tried the cleansing gel yet as I have a lot of facial cleansers.TOSS-UP as it came at around $2.00 per sample. 

Diverging Ramble: Winners is actually quite good for skincare deals and one-offs. I've found the Una Brennan Rose Facial oil there as well as lots of Marcelle, Becca and the Revlon Whipped Cream Foundation (for $7.99 which is quite a bit cheaper tham the regular price of $19.99 in drugstores). Of course the downside is that you have to go often and look for deals. Selection is limited and usually products can only be found once. 

Marcelle Cleansing Gel ($9.99 at Shopper's): Marcelle is a Canadian brand that does makeup and skincare. I particularly like their gentle and paraben free cleansers. That being said, I have tried the BB cleanser, the cleansing milk and the cleansing gel and the formulation and feel are largely similar. They are lotion-feeling cleansers that leave little residue. I always use them as a second cleanser, as they are not particularly efficient at taking off makeup. The milk is a bit thinner than the others and the gel feels lighter on the face. TOSS-UP

Marcelle Cleansing Water (free with $6.99 purchase of eye makeup remover pads at Shopper's): Not effective at ALL, has the same effect as regular water in removing makeup. Bioderma is much superior at actually dissolving and removing makeup. MISS!